Hiking Flatiron Mountain
Amity and I love to hike. It is not only the gratitude of a good day of exercise that draw us to hiking, but it is about making memoires and seeing landscapes only otherwise found in stories. We get our hiking inspiration from all over the place; from books, to Alltrails.com and from talking to locals. This hike came from the mind of a Phoenix local. Amity had a patient at her clinic suggest that we go hike Flatiron Mountain in the Superstition Mountains east of Phoenix. This hike would bring us to some of the most breathtaking views we have found in Arizona, and it would punch us square in the mouth with some of the hardest hiking we have ever done.
Mile: 36,002
Quote of the Blog: “Somewhere between the bottom of the hike and the top of the climb and the summit is the answer to the mystery of why we hike.” - Greg Child
Song of the Blog: “Push It” - Salt-N-Pepa
We are always excited to do a new hike. We have learned that hiking in Arizona is much different than what we have experienced in the Northwest. Up in Montana a hike that is around 5.5 miles would take us a couple hours. Down here, we are learning that this same distance could take you all day. Flatiron is a 2,627 vertical feet over those five and a half miles.
The trailhead is a very well maintained area. There is ample camping opportunities and several trails going out of the parking area. The Superstition Mountain area is one of the more sought after hiking zones in the Phoenix area. As we pulled into the parking area, we noticed a helicopter coming in to land. At this moment, we did not know we would be seeing this chopper again, and we were very curious to what it was doing.
The hike started out pretty mellow. It is a gradual incline with great views of the mountain and the valley behind us. As we approached the mountain, we came across a man who was hiking down the mountain. We were both intrigued by his shirt, which said “Flatiron Jim – 90 Years Old”. This guy did not look like he was 90, but after a quick on trial google search, we found that he was in fact 90 years old, and had hiked this trail hundreds of times.
As we started to get into the mountain and started to get into the elevation gain quickly. The trail was not really marked well, but luckily there was a steady stream of people going up and down the trail, so we were able to find out way in times where we weren’t sure. After we got to a small spring in the hike, we really started to go straight up. Amity looked at me and said, “How are we going to walk down this?”
The trail would then progressively get more and more difficult. Not only did we find ourselves doing some more scrambling than hiking, we also were having to navigate around the impending consequences of cacti needles. At one point we passed a group of people who were sitting on the train talking about concussions, but we thought nothing of it at the time. Then, we head that helicopter coming from a distance again. It then flew right over the top of us, before coming to a hover at eye level only a few hundred feet away from us. We quickly realized this was a search and rescue helicopter, and that they were pulling someone off the mountain. It was so cool, and honestly slightly frighting, to see the helicopter hovering right in front of us. As it pulled away, we continued up the gauntlet of a hike.
Every time we thought that this hike could not get harder or steeper, we would learn we were wrong. Eventually, we came a spot where we had to do something that was more like rock climbing than hiking. Amity was not having it, and did not want to go any further. I could see the top of the hike, and felt like we were too close to quit. So she allowed me to push forward by myself. I kept climbing and rock climbing, with a couple profanities, up the trail. I was able to get to the top and take in the views. I was only there for a short period of time, before I knew I needed to get back to Amity.
As I got to the first feature I had to climb down, I was hearing some ladies instruct someone on how to climb up it. It was a different way than I had come up, so I watched to see if it was easier. As the person came into sight, I realized it was Amity!!! She had grown the confidence to climb up the spot she got stuck at, and pushed on. She will give a lot of motivational credit to Flatiron Jim and thinking about how this 90 year old has done this hike that many times. As she tells it, she was sitting there thinking and watching others climb up the feature she got the motivation to do it. After climbing up that spot, she ran into a climber coming down who congratulated her by saying, “Good job! The hardest part is right in front of you, and it’s the last spot.” She was blow away that anything could be harder than what she had already done, but I can confirm. That was truly the hardest part of the hike. As she crested over the top of it, I was so happy and proud of her! We had just crushed the most grueling hike we have ever done.
We sat around the top of the hike, which puts you on a massive vertical cliff face on the side of the mountain top looking over the greater Phoenix valley. It truly was an inspiring place to have lunch!
The next phase of the hike was getting down. This took a lot of slow planning and hiking and a couple more profanities. With time, we continued to make it down the trail and off the mountain. We completely understand how and why someone would need to be airlifted off that trail. If you could not functionally walk with confidence and strength, you cannot climb down this trail. Very happy that was not us being lifted out. With sun kissed faces, tired legs and beat up hands we made our way home to nurse our wounds and recuperate for the next adventure!